By Jeff Foust
In today's edition: Airbus still committed to a combination of European space businesses, short-term space station missions are not part of NASA's long-term plans, Maxar to provide 3D maps for Army mixed-reality project, and more.
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Top Stories
The FCC has closed investigations into EchoStar after the company sold some of its spectrum holdings. The company said Tuesday it had received a letter yesterday from FCC chair Brendan Carr dismissing probes into the company's 5G buildout obligations and use of terrestrial and Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) AWS-4 spectrum. The regulator launched the investigations in May, following claims by SpaceX and others that EchoStar had failed to meet 5G network deployment conditions and was leaving valuable frequencies idle. EchoStar told some 5G spectrum to AT&T and its MSS spectrum to SpaceX, the latter in a deal announced Monday. One analyst speculated that SpaceX could now launch a standalone cellular service as a bundle with its Starlink Ku-band satellite broadband offering, partnering with T-Mobile for indoor coverage where cellular signals from satellites are weak. [SpaceNews]
NASA says it is not shifting to short-duration missions to low Earth orbit as it moves to commercial space stations. Part of the next phase of its Commercial LEO Destinations program is a demonstration mission lasting as little as 30 days on a commercial station, seen by some as a shift away from long-duration missions currently used on the International Space Station. At an industry day meeting Monday, agency officials said such short mission were not a long-term goal of the agency, but instead designed for this program as a way to test station systems while also performing some science, minimizing the impacts of any gap between the ISS and commercial stations. [SpaceNews]
The CEO of Airbus says he is still "very committed" to combining his company's space business with those of two European rivals. Guillaume Faury said after a speech at the Global Aerospace Summit Tuesday that discussions among Airbus, Thales Alenia Space and Leonardo about creating a combined space company are ongoing, including due diligence examinations and planning for antitrust reviews. In June, the CEO of Leonardo said he expected a "go/no-go" decision on proceeding with a combination of their space businesses by the end of July, and Faury didn't offer a schedule for the effort. Executives with the companies previously said that combining their space businesses into a joint venture could establish a "European champion" able to better compete with American firms. [SpaceNews]
Elon Musk says he expects a fully reusable Starship to start launching 100 tons of payload to orbit next year. In an appearance at the All-In Summit Tuesday, he said version 3 of Starship should be able to place more than 100 tons into a "useful orbit" some time next year with both the Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage recovered and reused. Version 3, he said, is a "gigantic upgrade" from the current version 2, and cautioned there may be some "initial teething pains" with the new design. As part of that development, SpaceX has been testing new thermal protection system technologies on the current version of Starship. That included metallic tiles that "didn't do so good" on last month's test, SpaceX's Bill Gerstenmaier said at another conference this week, with the tiles oxidizing during reentry and creating a rust-colored patina on much of the vehicle. [SpaceNews]
Maxar Intelligence will provide 3D maps and terrain data for a U.S. Army digital platform. Maxar said this week it will provide the data for the Soldier-Borne Mission Command Architecture (SBMC-A), a mixed-reality system designed to give soldiers an immersive view of the battlefield through specialized headsets. By feeding near-real-time geospatial intelligence into soldiers' fields of view, SBMC-A aims to give small units the kind of situational awareness typically available only at command centers. Anduril and Rivet, a startup backed by Palantir Technologies, won contracts to build prototype wearable devices for the program. [SpaceNews]
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Other News
A Progress cargo spacecraft undocked from the ISS Tuesday. The Progress MS-30 spacecraft, designated Progress 91 by NASA, undocked from the Russian segment of the station at 11:45 a.m. Eastern Tuesday ahead of a destructive reentry. The spacecraft had been at the station since the beginning of March. Its departure clears a docking port for the next Progress spacecraft, Progress MS-32, scheduled to launch on Thursday. [NASA]
A European-led mission to the asteroid Apophis is on schedule ahead of key funding decisions. Officials with the Ramses mission said initial development of the spacecraft is on schedule, backed by funding provided by ESA last year. ESA member states will decide whether to provide full funding for the mission at its ministerial conference in November. Project leaders declined to provide an estimate of the cost of the mission but said it should be less than Hera, another asteroid mission launched last year with a total cost of 363 million euros. ESA is partnering with Japan on Ramses, with the Japanese space agency JAXA seeking funding to provide a spacecraft instrument and solar arrays as well as a launch of the spacecraft in 2028 on an H3 rocket. [SpaceNews]
A startup is entering the market for space burial services. Space Beyond is raising funds to fly a brick-sized cubesat as soon as next year that would carry at least 1,000 capsules of cremated remains. Space Beyond is offering the service to customers for as low as $249, a fraction of the price from Celestis, which offers a range of space memorial missions from suborbital to the moon. Celestis said it's seeing strong demand for its premium offerings, which include three-day launch events, with 40% annual growth over the last five years. [SpaceNews]
Indian company Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has signed an agreement with the Indian space agency ISRO to commercialize a small launch vehicle. The agreement, signed Wednesday, will transfer technology for the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) to HAL and allow the company to produce the rocket for the next 10 years. SSLV is a solid-fuel rocket capable of placing up to 500 kilograms into orbit, but has only flown a few times. [PTI]
The South Korean government plans to develop a methane-fueled rocket engine. The Agency for Defense Development selected this week a team led by Hyundai Rotem and Korean Air to develop an engine using methane and liquid oxygen that will produce 35 metric tons of thrust. The project has raised questions in South Korea's space industry about whether the military may be usurping the country's space agency, KASA, in launch vehicle technology development. [Chosun Ilbo]
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It's Hard to Choose
| "Elon, after the explosion that happened with the failed launch–" "Which one?"
| – An exchange between the hosts of the All-In Podcast and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk while discussing development of Starship.
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FROM SPACENEWS |  | Do you know an individual, company or breakthrough that's making waves in the space industry? Nominations for the 2025 SpaceNews Icon Awards are open through Sept. 12. Share who you think deserves to be recognized for innovation, leadership and impact in space. Categories include Lifetime Achievement, Emerging Space Company, Innovative Technology and more —view the full list and submit your picks. |
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Sign up for our other newsletters Military Space: Veteran defense journalist Sandra Erwin delivers news and insights for the military space professional. Delivered Tuesday. China Report: Analysis of China's space activities and what it means as one of the United States' top competitors from correspondent Andrew Jones. Delivered every other Wednesday. SpaceNext AI: Exploring the intersection of space and artificial intelligence. Delivered Thursday.
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